$1000 Egg House on Wheels for a Working Urban Architect
The newly-graduated architect rarely has the luxury of living in an owned home, and may even find their starting salary insufficient to afford a decent apartment within walking (or riding) distance of the office. For a three-figure sum, this designer has solved both problems at once via a unique DIY dwelling project. Dai Haifei needed to save money and spent so much time at work anyway, the solution was strange but simple: construct a livable abode that can be wheeled and parked in the empty space right outside of the workplace. It isn’t much – just a bed, a lamp and a water tank inside – but it is sufficient for someone trying to save and scrape together a living. These burlap bags, layered over a waterproof membrane, provide essential rain protection – particularly as the root systems expand and help soak up and redirect water during more significant downfalls (while a small skylight-plus-solar-panel brings in light and power).
Green to Go: 5 Mobile Gardens & Portable Garden Projects
Ever see a shopping cart piled high with plants? How about a greenhouse on the back of a pickup truck? No, then perhaps a flatbed garden on wheels? Growing on the go, these gardening concepts are all works in progress – some have been realized while others are still (in some cases far-fetched) ideas for a greener future. Spotted on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, these strange green machines are (pardon the pun) sprouting up left and right – miniature, self-contained and street-safe greenhouses fitted to the backs of a typical truck. Taking it a step further, Joseph Baldwin has proposed to plant wildflowers and prairie grasses on flat train-car platforms to be towed behind urban mass transit vehicles for the benefit of a broader public audience. A more eco-friendly option presented by Annechien Meier involves an energy-free community garden made up of a wooden platform on rubber wheels that can be towed manually and parked anywhere.
Small Cabin - Plan, Build and Enjoy your Small Cabin
Amazing Home Atrium & Multi-Level Interior Garden Design
In dense urban settings – such as packed Japanese cities – getting a to a patch of sunlight and bit of greenery can be a great relief but a difficult prospect at times. This interior design by Suppose brings the best of simple modern minimalism together with a light and spacious atmosphere and plenty of plant-life climbing all the way up and down the inside walls. There is an otherworldly quality to these spaces that seem to shift impossibly between indoor and outdoor, all within the confines of these entirely interior rock-filled and tree-planted areas – almost how one might imagine a greenhouse within a space ship, designed to keep the passengers healthy, happy and sane. Deep within the structure are the functional kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room and other core programmatic spaces.
Illustrations Of Superheroes IRL
We always catch superheroes doing cool stuff like flying, running real fast, or beating up on bad guys. We don’t really get to see the normal, regular-people type stuff like teeth brushing, taco eating or bathroom pooping. Enter Artist Greg Guillemin. He shows us the other side of superheroes. The not so super side. Via: coolmaterial.com
Semi Trucks Recycled into New Penthouse & Bay Windows
What happens when an artistic couple and an industrial-and-reuse-oriented architecture firm collide? Something like this: an otherwise-ordinary West Village townhouse turned into a light-filled live/work art studio … complete with pieces of old metal truck trailers protruding from the top and projecting out the front. Lawrence and Alice Weiner wanted more room and daylight . Building codes lent a hand, allowing them to work with the architects of LOT-EK (famous for many offbeat refabs and a copious use of cargo containers) add another story to the top of their residence. In the end, needs on all fronts were met.
Miniature Sculptures Make Their Way Back to the Beach
Artist Anna Gillespie creates thought-provoking sculptures of the human form and its delicate relationship with nature. We saw this first with Taste the Rain, her ongoing series of surreal sculptures created from the material of fallen trees, and then again with pieces like Woodsman, Abundance, and Homage. We just got sent these photos of several pieces created by Gillespie back in 2011. They were each beautifully shot by photographer Colin Hawkins, at England's Berrow Sands. The stunning works were created using material found right on the beach including everything from a burnt pallet and driftwood to a large piece of seaworn bone. While the sculptor likes to leave her work open for interpretation, she does say that she hopes that they conjure up " a sense of being a bystander, having to watch from a distance as the effects of global warming unfold." Above: The Waiting Game, 2011 Unique Bronze, Found Steel Grazing Lands, 2011Unique Bronze, Found Bone, Oak
‘Woodpile’ Cabin: Log-Lined Fire Pit = Four-Season Shelter
This is one of those shelter design ideas that sounded good in theory and problematic in practice. Few such projects become a reality, making this timber-framed retreat a rare (but hopefully safe) exception … so far, so good, as it does not appear to have burned down (yet). The concept itself is very cool – or rather, hot … then warm … then cold? One would think that the whole place could catch fire, but apparently there is enough distance within the dwelling (and between it and other structures) to make it work. By the time summer comes, this little architectural abode by Noa Biran & Roy Talman (images by Henk Von Pickartz, Brian Gould, Peter Hargraves, Dave Pancoe and Dan Harper) will be an open air, slightly-sheltered summer pavilion until the next fall rolls around and new log piles are made going into the winter.
